Improvement in propeller-engines



E. D. ASHE. PBOPELLER ENGINE.

Patented Apr. 19, 1864.

UNITED STATES ,FFICE- IMPROVEMENT IN PROP ELLER -ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,336, dated April 19, 1864.- i

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD DAVID Asnn, of Brompton, inthe county of Middlesex, in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland known as England, a

lieutenant in Her Britannic Majestys navy, at present stationed at Quebec, in the Province of Canada, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Marine Steam-Engines for Driving Propellers; and I do hereby declare,-

that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being bad; to the accompanying drawings, forming part' of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a plan of a steam engine for driving a screw-propeller having my invention applied to obtain the rotary motion of its shaft from the reciprocatory motion of its pistons. shaft, taken at right angles to Fig. 1. is a face view of one of the drivers.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal view of the Similar letters of reference indicate corrcgether, and consequently that the pistons will sponding parts in the several figures.

The principal object of my invention is to obtain a high velocity of shaft without gearin g, or, in other words, to obtain two ormore revolutions of the shaft of an engine from one stroke'of the piston and it consists in a certain construction and arrangement of a spirally-grooved shaft, in combination with drivers attached to the piston-rods for this purpose.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, will proceed to de scribe its construction and operation.

A A are two steam-cylinders, arranged side by side as near together as may be desired, and having their piston-rods a a furnished at their outer ends with sliding blocks 11 b to work in guides in a frame, (3.

B is the propeller-shaft, arranged in suitaable hearings in the frame 0, parallel with the cylinders and midway between their pis- Fig. 3:-

j, and k, and each terminating in the other at g.

d d, and having the sidesof the said tongues curvedin such manner (shown in Fig. 3) as to permitthem to'turn'freely at the junctions e and g of the grooves, and pass from one groove into the other. -These drivers are made with pivots n a, which". are fitted into the sliding blocks brlr in such .manner as to be capable of turning or oscillating freely.

By the reciprocating movements of the pistons the drivers .h h are caused to travel the whole length of one groove, then to turn into and return along the other, and in so doing they produce a rotarymotion of the shaft,

producing two complete revolutions thereof at each stroke of the piston, or four revolutions for one stroke back and forth. The two drivers are so arranged. that they will never both arrive at the ends of the grooves tostruotion, besides serving to obtain a high ve-.

locity without gearing, enables the working parts of an engine to be brought within avery small compass, which renders it applicable with especial advantage to screw propulsion. The smallness of compass results from the arrangement of'the shaft in the space between the two pistonrods, which would otherwise be r wasted. r

I do not claim, broadly, the employment for the purpose of obtaining rotary motion of a spirally-grooved cylinder.

I am aware that it is common to convert reciprocating rectilinearinto rotary motion, and vice versa, by the use of slides or drivers working in spiral grooves on the shaft, and, further, that in printing-presses and some other machines a plurality of spiral grooves are employed, passing several times around the shaft.

My invention relates exclusivelyto marine I engines for propelling vessels; and

h h a.. what I call driversfl made with tongues 11 i. to fit andwork f'reely in the grooves What I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the two engine-cylinders A A, piston rods 01. (1 guides b b, driv'ers h1h, ways 0 C, and propeiler shaft B, formed with a plurality of intersecting spiral grooves 42 (I, having two or more revolutions, when the said drivers h work on opposite sides of the said shaft B, one in each of the grooves 11 d;

and all the parts are constructed and arranged to operate in the manner 'and for the purposes herein specified.

EDWARD DA'VID ASHE.

Witnesses: 1

JOHN TEAFFE, Tim's. OLEARY. 

